Part Three:

The night will always belong to Liger. As Roger makes his way to meet his friends and be merry, something had to happen. Hopefully this Liger doesn't bare teeth

Roger loved midnight walks. He felt better when he saw the night sky as he walked out of the apartment building. People stayed home out of misguided fear, so the night was for the mutant. Most places stayed open and offered cheap meat meals left over from the morning. Farms and ranchers in the new world found themselves with more customers than ever. Roger reasoned he was lucky to still have a need for vegetables. His meals were cheaper than his counterparts, Jamie complained about two things in life, people, and the price of a good steak. The Valley View Bar was his parent’s favorite place to eat sometimes.

Roger, as he walked down the street, he looked around with his hand in his pocket. He’d spent some nights just walking around the town to see it in a different light. That was hard to do in the mornings, as people tend to be skittish around him. Police officers slowed down and looked at him and waited for him to make a move. A neat fact of mutant biology and all the gifts it gave along with the curses, Roger can smell fear. The police were one part cocky and another part afraid of the 7 ’1 giant. The awkward looking teen that from a distance looks like he couldn’t hurt a fly, but could possibly do an ollie if he practiced. Roger was told one day when he was ten and 5 '5 and the world already made up its mind about him, “They’re just jealous of you.” 

The night was his, the police watched and some even dared, but Roger had the patience and the know how to ruin their fun. Roger looked up at the other apartments and the graffiti on the walls. Human kids with peashooters tag buildings with stupid threats. “It’s always mutant hunting season,” in red and black spray paint. Other kids both mutant and not tag over them with their own stupid but charming tags. A wannabe rapper puts their name there, a mutant frustrated with the system tags about how cops are the real cannibals. Roger was walking slowly, and that was a mistake. He looked up at a boarded up bakery and someone shouted something.

“What?” Roger said under his breath, it was from, he could judge three meters away. Some old man looked at him, he looked angry and wasn’t dressed for the outdoors. Plaid pajamas and a black undershirt. He looked around confused and shouted at Roger.

“Hey you…you f*****g dog!” he screamed, Roger could hear him and smell him. Cheap beer and tobacco entered his nose and he grimaced, he kept masks in his cargo pockets to hide his canines.

“What?” He said, pretending not to have heard him. Roger put on a light blue and white accented mask from his work.

“Shoul- Should you be in the f*****g pound?” he shouted again, and Roger rolled his eyes. 

“I coul-” he stopped that thought in his head as he looked around and saw he could make a turn, extending his walk by a few minutes but avoiding the rude old man.

Roger laughed as he walked away, softly under his mask he huffed as he hoped whoever the old man’s nurse or kids knew where he was.  He then heard footsteps behind him. The sound of feet hitting concrete paired with exacerbated breathing. Roger balled his fits and turned around before seeing the old man a few feet away from him buckle and drop to the ground. He muttered something between each labored breath. Roger listened and heard him speak.

“You rabid dogs, you rabid dogs,” Roger heard and saw as he was struggling to pick himself up from the ground. Roger felt it, a voice in the back of his head.

“He’s too old and weak for this world, do everyone a favor and just bite down on his neck. A quick snap and it’ll be like snapping a twig.” Roger learned that most mutants have that voice in their head. Humans have intrusive thoughts, as Mutant’s minds are different. This was their body speaking to them, and their body had simple desires.

“F**k you old man,” Roger said and turned around. Last time he let a scorpion ride on his back he got stung, if a 9mm to the back was a scorpion sting.

“Don’t! DON’T you…walk…awa-'' Roger counted his heartbeat? It was faint and became fainter the more he walked away.

“Dad?” Roger stopped and turned around and saw a young woman. This is what scared him, a woman used as justification to lynch him. That word lynch had such ugly history behind it, and ahead of it.

“Oh my god, dad, are you ok?” she rushed to her father and looked up at Roger. It didn’t register yet.

“I’m so sorry, did he sa…you’re tall…” she kneeled beside her father and helped him up slowly. She got between him and Roger as she looked worried for her father to being terrified of Roger.

“He called me a dog,” Roger said before turning around and walking away.

Roger felt hot with rage as he turned a corner and saw another mutant. He saw him around at the bar sometimes with a human man. They talked about sports and complained about their favorite soccer team from Italy.  He was proud of his features and saw diamond blue eyes with the black slits. They looked at one another and acknowledged one another with them tapping their thumb on the corner of their mouth.

“Don’t round that corner yet dude, some piece of s**t old dude is getting helped up by his daughter home. She’s skittish,” he warned.

“S**t really…wait was he in plaid pajamas?” the man asked him.

“Yeah,” Roger raised an eyebrow and the guy laughed.

“S**t man he’s my f*****g neighbor, called me a mutt and s**t dude,” Roger watched him laugh as he walked around the corner. Roger shrugged and kept walking.

Roger didn’t linger anymore and picked up the pace. He saw Jamie's car in the parking lot beside the bar and smiled. It was a cozy spot that was styled after what you think a bar out in the old west would look like. Roger knew its history better than he knew American history. 

“And he was ten minutes late!” he heard Jamie shout from the corner booth. The bar was open until 1 a.m. and opened back up in the afternoon. It was 10:45 and Roger had some time to enjoy the night with his friends.

“Roger, my man, how are you doing?” Marcus greeted with a wide smile. 

“This is a rare sight, where’s the wife?” Roger asked, and Marcus let out a sigh.

“Being the most beautiful woman in the world and watching over our baby,” he said with a tired smile.

“Yeah?” Roger sat beside Aurora and snuck her hand into his. She blushed but didn’t say anything.

“She called it paying me back for watching her when she visited her sister and mother in Alaska,” Marcus explained.

“Hey, hey, don’t let the old man turn the conversation about his kid and wife. I hate hearing how happy people’s lives are,” Jamie joked as he drank from a bowl of beef broth.

“Man, you’re just bitter,” Marcus shot back.

“Damn straight, man,” Jamie countered.

“Enough both of you,” Aurora laughed, Roger looked at her and her canines. She was a hybrid like him, but she was short for one. She was only 6 ‘5 and with brown eyes with slits.

“I ordered you a large chicken already,” Jamie said with a smile.

“Dude, you didn’t have to, I don’t-” Jamie shut him down.

“Nope! All on me except for the drinks since I lost the coin toss and driving you animals home,” Jamie smiled at Roger as he knew he was strapped for money.

“Really?” Roger asked.

“Yeah man, we barely get to see you,” Marcus chimed in.

Roger smiled and sat back, he let himself relax for a moment. He took a deep breath and looked at the menu.

“Hey dude, don’t try to pay me back,” Jamie then downed all the beef broth in his flash and ended it with an exaggerated sigh.

“No I got thirty bucks, and I’m getting two…s**t the price went up on the cherry sours,” Roger looked at the drinks and felt the world has spited him, his three go to drinks were now pricier.

“Yeah man, s**t’s been worse since that new office was built,” Marcus explained.

“Office? Oh….s**t, yeah the-”

“Hudson international, the most vile and evil company in the world, pricing everyone out but not for long though,” Jamie had a smirk, he wanted someone to ask.

“So, Marcus, how's Marie?” Aurora asked with a sly grin.

“She’s gotten into finger painting birds, my baby is an artist,” Marcus answered.

“Hey,” Jamie protested.

“Yeah? I’d love to see some of her art,” Roger asked in part of genuine curiosity also to f**k with Jamie.

“No family or kids, come one guys…I would like to see Marie’s paintings,” Jamie relented.

Marcus showed the picture to them all and smiled. Marie had Marcus’ skin tone and his smile, but her height and eyes were all her mother. Those brilliant emerald eyes her mother and her had reminded Roger about his own mom. Jamie let out an awe that made Marcus chuckle. She picked up each picture and talked about how each bird was cool. For a six-year-old, she’s a calm child and worked hard to make art.

“Ok, that’s pretty nice…can I talk about my thing?” Jamie asked the group.

“You have the floor, Jamie,” Aurora said with a chuckle.

“Ok, so I got…drumroll please….Roger,” Jamie looked at Roger, and he rolled his eyes before drumming on the table.

“I got a promotion and a 15 percent pay raise!” Jamie pretended to roar and beat his chest like a guerrilla.

“Ha! Proud of you man…what does this have to do with Hudson International?” Aurora asked. 

“Me and some other mutants and…humans, are putting together our resources to block another gray office building,” Aurora smiled and clapped as Jamie bowed before the three.

“Great, so let's eat and some of us get shitfaced!” Jamie announced.

Their waitress arrived with their food and drink for Marcus and Aurora. Roger looked at the menu and made a decision on the drinks.

“I’ll take a gin and tonic and two shouts of…vodka,” Roger smiled sheepishly.

“I.D.” the waitress asked.

“Here,” Roger smiled at everyone as he waited.

“19…but you're a freakishly tall teen,” she questioned.

“I’m a mutant, the law is different,” he stated.

“Yeah right you're a mutant, you’re wearing a mask to hide the fact you don’t have fangs, and you don’t have those eye slits,” she doubted. During the early stages of peace, various governments decided to add new laws to ensure the integration of the mutant populace or the quiet end of their involvement in public life. The United States was ahead of the curve not for any noble reason but that mutants and hybrids made great soldiers.

“Here,” Roger said, annoyed, he pulled down his mask and revealed his canines.

“Oh there’s your fangs, Ok gin n tonic and two shots of vodka,” she smirked and wrote down his order.

She left, and Roger took Jamie’s hand before he could wrap his hands around a steak burger. 

“Broski, Bro, Brother! Thank you for the food man, I love you so much,” Roger hammed it up and laughed.

“F**k off dude, I’ll bite you,” Jamie said when he slapped his hand away.

The group ate with Marcus having loaded chili cheese fries with rum and coke. It was his go-to meal since he was twelve years old. Rum and coke became his choice of drink when he was seventeen. Aurora being a hybrid granted her an omnivore’s stomach, but since she was short for a hybrid, so she ate high protein meals. Tonight, grilled fish was her protein and a nice IPA to wash it down. Jamie didn’t let his stomach get between him and a good burger, even if he’ll pay for it later. He ordered his double cheeseburger with a root beer instead of his double of scotch, since he was playing chauffeur for the night.

“Roger, have you got a car yet?” Jamie interrogated.

“Not yet, f**k off,” Roger drowned his chicken salad in ranch dressing to Marcus’ disgust.

“That’s not fair to the chicken,” Marcus shook his head as he twisted his fork into his fries.

“What?” he stabbed his fork into the chicken and Aurora laughed.

“Oh my God, you bath everything in sauce,” Aurora said with a smirk.

“I like sauce, Jamie back me up,” Roger looked at Jamie and saw him looking at the T.V. Roger turned his head and saw the news. Every bar had T.V.s and so everyone was looking at the breaking news.

“We’re getting reports of a group of men armed with bats and hammers are patrolling the streets, the police refused to give a comment,” a young human reporter was on the streets and Jamie recognized the neighborhood.

“That’s f*****g 5 blocks away…s**t,” he said under his breath.

“Should we worry?” Aurora asked, she leaned back and looked towards Jamie and Marcus on how to react.

“Run or Fight,” Roger felt in the back of his mind, and he looked at Jamie to see how he reacted to the news. He was the oldest mutant out of the three of them, and for some reason the mutants tended to follow the oldest man or woman or one with the most adult children.

“We should stay here and let them past, Donovan won’t let them in, and they would want to f**k with a man with a Mossberg under the bar,” Marcus said and then broke the trance of their instincts, and they all smiled and agreed.

“Donovan is an eagle eye for an old man, he beat Jamie at darts three times in a row,” Aurora reminded everyone and the tense was cut in half.

“Damn it that sucked haha each time he got a bullseye I had to take a pickle shot,” Jamie recounted before he got back to his burger. When the waitress returned, she came with Roger’s drinks and another beer for Aurora. As a surprise, the bartender made another rum and coke in the house. With a note that said, “long time no see.”

Jamie, while not listening to his instinct, still was pissed at the news. Marcus was on his second rum and coke as Aurora cheered Roger on with the shots.

“F**k me, I hate shots,” Roger lamented as he sipped his gin and tonic.

“Yeah…hmmm…” Jamie said as he stopped eating and drank his root beer.

“Come on man let it out Jamie, I’ve been where you been man,” Marcus enjoyed his Rum and Coke while he waited for Jamie to say his piece.

“Just people sucks dude, like Marcus no offense, but you’re one of the good humans,” Jamie was going to rant.

“Like that’s weird to say because like…you're Black, but also have the privilege of being human in a human society,” he looked at the T.V. again and grimaced.

“Like…I kinda get it, I’m older than y'all I was nine when the zero event happened, and I still got the talk about how to keep your hands up and talk all proper when a police officer stops you,” Marcus sipped his drink and let his thoughts out.

“But like it also got better for us after a while, after some fucked up s**t…like there is no easy comparison so just say your piece, and we’ll figure it out, I gotta figure it out for my little girl,” he admitted.

“Ok, Ok, like humans are mostly chill, but there are always a few psychos in every group right?” Aurora spoke up as the lone dissenter.

“Nope, if it was like that how come more humans don’t come out to get between us and the police more or other humans,” Roger said, he thought of his sister and how she’d said she was “one of the tolerant ones” before she’d then say something offensive.

“Yeah, like I’m at work and people ask me to lift all the heavy s**t, all the menial labor crap while I’m supposed to be over the machines and s**t I busted my a*s for that certification,” Jamie got back to eating his burger in anger.

“This was paid for by my hours on the machine, I’m not a f*****g grunt anymore,” Jamie looked slighted and he was.

“Marcus, can you explain how that’s related to being a mutant?” She asked.

“Well, mutants are seen as animals or more like an animal so they’re meant for menial tasks like how you have a bull plowing the fields,” Marcus explained the stereotype.

“Sounds like when you complained about your old job,” Aurora connected it, but she also had a question.

“It’s different, though, right? Mutants are stronger and faster, like I’m small for a hybrid, but I could easily bench press you,” Aurora was confused.

“That’s the complicated part, like Blacks, Whites, and Brown people are all the same people from different environments and cultures, but a human heart is a human heart,” Marcus said as he finished the rest of his fries and drink.

“Yep, go humans….”Jamie sat back and let out a sigh.

“Like the civil rights movement weren’t exactly anti-species based discrimination,” Roger finished his drink and felt looser but only had five bucks left in his wallet. While it didn’t spoil his mood, he knew he’d hear something from his sister.

“This one, yeah,” he waved over the waitress, and she smiled at him.

“What do you need, handsome,” she complimented. Aurora looked at her cautiously as the waitress Lilly to her knowledge is an older woman around her thirties while Roger was nineteen. She hesitated to say anything as she focused on her beer and fish.

Author's Note

I'd love to have your thoughts on Roger and how he moves through the world and observe the world, even if the world observes him as a threat.